It’s Called Currency

It’s Thanksgiving Day in the United States, and in homes throughout the country, families and friends will gather to feast on turkey and ham and all the glorious “fixin’s” that are traditionally served on this day. They will enjoy food and companionship in groups small and large, some quietly, others in chaos. And many will take the time to reflect on what they are thankful for.

What are you thankful for? Not just in terms of money and stuff, but in your life? [Read more →]

Tags: current events, giving, Thursday Task // 1 Comment »

The day after Thanksgiving is called Black Friday because, for many stores, this is this day that they finally go “into the black” in terms of their income for the year. But this year, Black Friday may not be a reality for retailers who are so far “in the red” that they will continue to take losses as they cut prices in order to get you to shop.

Due to the current economic environment, you may find that the big Black Friday doorbusters and deep discounts of past years just aren’t there this year. [Read more →]

Tags: current events, online shopping, spending less // 1 Comment »

The current economy has created new questions for those who have traditionally purchased gift cards as part of their holiday gifts. In past years, I’ve given gift cards to my teenage niece so she can enjoy shopping for herself at her favorite store, not to mention the many cards I’ve received over the years for my favorite bookstore. Those little bits of plastic are nearly as much of a time-honored holiday tradition as cookies for Santa in many a family.

But with the number of stores that have declared bankruptcy in recent weeks, buying store-branded gift cards may have new risks. [Read more →]

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If your employer traditionally pays Christmas bonuses, you may still receive one this year, depending on what the company has had to cut in order to keep up with the current economy. If you do get that extra money, what are you going to do with it? Will you do the same thing you always have? Will you spend it on Christmas gifts or the post-Christmas sales? Will you splurge on a big ticket item? Will you use it to pay on your debts?

Most people view bonuses as “free money” and they race to spend them. [Read more →]

Tags: giving, priorities, saving // Add Comment »

How do you teach your children about money? It’s an especially tough question when what you learned as a child left you totally unprepared for life in the adult world. And it leads to many more questions… At what point do you tackle which questions? What bad habits do you have from your own childhood that you want to make sure they don’t learn? What’s the right way to go about this? [Read more →]

Tags: education, marketing, priorities, saving // Add Comment »

When I first started trying to figure out how to create a budget, I was lost. I didn’t know how much I spent each month on pretty much anything, nor did I have any idea how much I shouldspend. The whole idea of trying to figure that out intimidated me to the extreme. As a matter of fact, I had several false starts with my budget. I’d put one together at the beginning of the month, figure out that I wasn’t meeting it at the end of the month, and decide it was hopeless and convince myself that I really didn’t need a budget anyway. I think I did this several times over the course of a couple of years. At that time, money wasn’t tight and I could afford to be reckless. Or so I thought.

Had I taken the time to learn—really learn—how to effectively budget in those days, I might not have ended up more than $30,000 in debt when my first husband and I split up. [Read more →]

Tags: budgeting, cashflow management, education, priorities, saving // Add Comment »

If you’re just starting out on learning how to manage your cashflow, here’s a technique that can work to curb overspending: use envelopes to allocate cash to certain categories. This is often useful when you tend to overspend on things like eating out, groceries, clothing and entertainment.

The technique: [Read more →]

Tags: cashflow management, saving // Add Comment »

Many people have never taken the time to calculate their net worth. For some, it is because they believe only the rich do that sort of thing. For others, they think that their net worth says something about their personal value as individuals in the world, that it’s some sort of judgment about whether or not they are worthwhile people. Neither of these beliefs is true.

Your net worth is [Read more →]

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If you’re involved in any type of long-term committed relationship (married, living-together, whatever), you need to get current with each other about your money. Talk about your past mistakes and successes, your present situation, your future goals, and your individual money habits. Many people come from families that treated money as a taboo subject. If you came from one of them, it’s time to break that destructive family tradition. [Read more →]

Tags: cashflow management, education, priorities // 2 Comments »

If you don’t live an extra busy life, I want to know your secret. Most of us are living life in the fast lane, whether we want to or not. We’ve got work and family and friends and classes and parties and team sports and… and… and… and we still need to make time for ourselves, somehow. It seems like there’s never enough time to do everything we need to, much less those other things that we still want to do.

One way to make handling your monthly finances easier is [Read more →]

Tags: priorities, saving // 1 Comment »